Enhanced favorites service for web browsers and web applications

ABSTRACT

The invention provides two enhancements for the use of favorites during a Web browsing session. A first enhancement identifies when a user is adding a favorite to his favorites list and auto-suggests a category under which the favorite could be stored. A second enhancement allows a user to review his favorites list and see a summary of feed content (RSS or other standard) on each feed enabled page on his favorites list, without requiring the user to link to the page in question.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The invention relates to management and viewing of “favorites” or“bookmarks”. More particularly, the invention relates to an enhancedfavorites service built in to a Web browser as well as available from aweb site, accessible from any web browser.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Web browsing has evolved into a sophisticated information managementprocess. Web browsing sessions produce much information that the usermay wish to access at a later time. Currently, users save Web pages ofinterest as “favorites”. Each favorite is manually cached by the user inone of several subject matter relevant folders. This process is bothinefficient and inexact. The user must make a decision based onimperfect information, i.e. the user may not have fully reviewed thecontent of the page that is being added to his favorites list, and thusplaces the page in the wrong category. The later retrieval of suchfavorite information may be hampered by such wrong categorization.

It would be advantageous to provide an automatic and consistent approachto organizing favorites.

Further, many such favorites have feeds (conforming to RSS or otherstandards) associated with them. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is aformat for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites,including major news sites such as Wired, news-oriented community sitessuch as Slashdot, and personal web logs. Once information about eachitem is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can check the feed forchanges and react to the changes in an appropriate way (seehttp://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html). Currently, Webpages that have associated RSS feeds provide a list of RSS items whenthe page is linked to. Modern browsers, such as Safari (Apple Corp,Cupertino, Calif.) provide an icon that indicates that such pagescontain RSS content. Such browsers also indicate the presence of new RSScontent in a favorites list with an indicium, such as an icon or numericindication. Unfortunately, there is no way for a user to review afavorites list and determine if any of the information on the linkedpage is of interest, except to follow the link to the page in questionand review the information at the page itself. Because much of the RSSinformation is duplicated over many Websites, a user invariably wastestime reviewing information he has already seen.

It would therefore be advantageous to provide a mechanism that allowed auser to review RSS content without having to link to the page whichprovides such content.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides two enhancements for the use of favorites duringa Web browsing session. A first enhancement identifies when a user isadding a favorite to his favorites list and auto-suggests a folder underwhich the favorite could be stored. A second enhancement allows a userto review his favorites list and see a summary of feed content (RSS orother format) automatically displayed in-line with each feed enabled website in his favorites list, without requiring him to explicitly to linkto the feed URL in question.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a screen shot showing RSS integration in a collapsed viewaccording to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a screen shot showing RSS integration in an expanded viewaccording to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a screen shot showing an RSS hover state according to theinvention;

FIG. 4 shows an add favorite form according to the invention;

FIG. 5 is a screen shot showing folder suggestions according to theinvention;

FIG. 6 is a screen shot showing a folder pull-down menu according to theinvention; and

FIG. 7 is a block schematic diagram showing a preferred enhancedfavorites system architecture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides two enhancements for the use of favorites duringa Web browsing session. A first enhancement identifies when a user isadding a favorite to his favorites list and auto-suggests a folder underwhich the favorite could be stored. A second enhancement allows a userto review his favorites list and see a summary of feed content (RSS orother format) automatically displayed in-line with each feed enabled website in his favorites list, without requiring him to explicitly to linkto the feed URL in question.

In the presently preferred embodiment, when a user is engaged in a Webbrowsing session with a browser such as Safari or Firefox, the user maybookmark a Web page of interest for later retrieval and review. Thebookmark, also referred to as a favorite, is sent to a host for storageand also sent to a metadata server. The metadata server performs alookup of the URL and/or other information associated with thebookmarked page for category information and/or for RSS information. Thebrowser, i.e. the user client, can also retrieve relevant informationfrom the Web page. The metadata server makes associations and returnsthese to the user.

In the case of an RSS feed associated with a bookmarked page, theapplication (web browser or web application) shows an icon relative tothe bookmark. Clicking on the icon retrieves the most recent “headlines”for the feed. The client application periodically checks for newheadlines. When the user selects a list of bookmarks, each bookmark inthe list that has an associated RSS feed, displays the headlinescorresponding to the most recent headlines for the in-line with thebookmark list. In the presently preferred embodiment, the five mostrecent headlines are shown for each RSS enabled Web page in the list.The actual number of headlines, amount of text presented, and updatefrequency may be set to default values or they may be set by the user ina preference pane. Additionally, a refresh button may be provided.

In the case of automatically organizing bookmarks as they are acquired,The URL and/or other relevant information of a page being bookmarked isreferenced by the metadata server to a hierarchical classificationscheme, such as that of the Open Directory Project(http://www.dmoz.org). A folder suggestion is returned to the user thatidentifies a most likely folder for saving the bookmark. The user mayselect the suggested folder, or he may save the bookmark in any otherfolder, or create a new folder.

The following discussion details a presently preferred implementation ofthe invention.

Feed Integration

Functions. When a new favorite is added, part of the process in thebackground is finding an associated feed (RSS/Atom or other format). Ifa feed can be found (with associated headlines), a feeds icon, shown inFIG. 1 as “RSS”, is displayed to the right of the favorite.Additionally, another tree control appears next to the favorite icon.Finally, an additional feature is to display a feeds/new feedsdifferentiation integrated in the folder icon, in case all folders areclosed when new feeds are fetched. This applies to all parent folders ofURLs with feeds. The new feed status shows if there are one or more newfeeds contained anywhere in the folder or enclosed folders.

Interaction. Clicking on the title of the favorite takes the user to thefavorite place. However, clicking on the “RSS” icon on the right, orexpanding the new tree control accesses additional features.

FIG. 2 shows RSS integration in an expanded view according to theinvention. Once the tree control for the favorite is expanded, itdisplays the top five headlines, ordered by descending date, of theassociated feed. Because screen space is at a premium, the preferredembodiment only displays the first few characters of the headline, andtruncates it after that. Clicking on any of the headlines takes thebrowser to the link associated in the feed. Note that an icon 22, i.e. a“sun”, indicates that new articles are present.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that any number of headlinesmay be displayed and that such headlines may be displayed in any order.Additionally, a user preference dialog may be provided to allow the userto select such parameters as number of headlines displayed, order ofdisplay, and number of characters to display, for example.

FIG. 3 is a screen shot showing an RSS hover state according to theinvention. To give the user some notification that a feed has beenupdated, the icon showing that a favorite has a feed preferably has twostates. The default state and an updated state, which is shown if a feedhas, been updated in the last hour in this example. Note that foraccessibility reasons, contrast should be more important than color as achange indicator for this icon. Hovering over the new feeds icon showsthe number of new feeds. No hover state is provided for normal state“RSS” icon, i.e. there are no new feeds.

Add Favorite

Add Favorite Window. FIG. 4 shows an Add Favorite form according to theinvention. When the user clicks the “Add” button, or selects “AddFavorite . . . ” from the favorites menu, the Add Favorite flow begins.

Add Favorite form Functions. The user first selects one of the radiobutton options. “Select a Folder” is the default option. If the user hasthe “Suggest folder names” feature turned on, there is an initial delaywith progress feedback while the browser retrieves that information.During this time, the folder pull-down menu is disabled, and an animatedloading label is displayed. Also, note that the save button is disabledduring this interaction. In the case that the user has turned off thefolder suggestion, all of this goes away, and a folder pull-down menu isprovided. If this option is turned off, such state is stored in the userpreferences. Completion of the Add Favorite flow results in the displayof an updated panel showing the favorite at the bottom of either theroot of the list, or the bottom of the items inside a folder if a folderwas selected prior to adding.

Folder Suggestion

Folder Suggestion. FIG. 5 is a screen shot showing folder suggestionsaccording to the invention. In the event that a suggested folder isfound for the new favorite, the pull-down defaults to that folder. FIG.5 shows the folder with the name boldfaced, and a special icon to denotethat it is a suggested folder.

Folder Pull-down Menu. FIG. 6 is a screen shot showing a folderpull-down menu according to the invention. The folder's pull-down menuis straight forward. Preferably, the menu shows folder icons, and usesindention to represent hierarchy.

Architecture

FIG. 7 is a block schematic diagram showing a preferred enhancedfavorites system architecture. The following is a discussion of each ofthe items shown in FIG. 7.

Web Browser: The web browser 71 stores the users' favorites, locally viaa local storage service 72 and updates them as needed from the host.

Some information about the network connections:

a. The web browser gets and sets favorites information by issuing XMLover HTTP commands to the UI server 73. On startup, the web browserissues a get request with the current version it has. If the versioncached in the local store is older, the full set of favorites isdownloaded from the UI server.

b. When a user adds a URL to his list of favorites, the web browserissues a request to the UI server to retrieve the associated feed URLand suggested folder name. When the user chooses a folder, the webbrowser then sends the URL, feed URL, title, and folder name to the host(server) for permanent storage.

c. When displaying favorites to the user, the web browser may fetch RSSfeed 74 associated with favorites via the Headline server 75, takingadvantage of the caching the latter performs.

2. Web Application: The Web application 76, is the UI vehicle for“enhanced favorites” outside of the web browser when the user uses anyother web browser. It connects to the UI server via HTTP, and receivesfrom it DHTML content. It receives RSS feed content when requested fromthe Headline server.

3. UI Server: The UI server is both a data aggregator and a presentationlayer for clients.

Some information about the UI Server network connections:

a. Serves up UI and favorites metadata as DHTML to Web browsers.Receives requests from browsers to retrieve as well as to make changesto favorites using HTTP.

b. Serves up Favorite data and performs add/delete/modify operations forweb browsers using XML over HTTP.

c. Serves up metadata to web browsers using XML over HTTP. To get thefolder suggestion and feeds for favorites submitted it issues requeststo the metadata server 77. This server analyzes the favorite URL andmatches it with its internal database to come up with associated feedsand a taxonomy path. It then uses mapping rules to transform thetaxonomy path into a folder suggestion. It then returns the feeds andsuggested folders, which is what the client is interested in.

d. For authentication, the preferred UI server relies on the AOLstandard authentication infrastructure.

4. Headline Server: The headline server serves RSS feed content(headlines and article summaries) to Web browsers or AOL Explorerclients upon request via HTTP. It isolates the web browsers fromdifferent RSS protocols by normalizing feeds to one particular RSSformat. Additionally, the server provides two interfaces, XML and DHTML,which allow simple access to feeds and headlines from almost anydevelopment platform. The headline server also allows for improvedclient performance by caching popular feeds and headlines and by usingan HTTP connection pool to retrieve feeds from their source.

5. Enhanced Favorites Cache Complex: This element 78 caches user'sfavorites to reduce the load on the databases and offer a betterexperience for web users. The system handles requests from the UI serverto add/delete/modify users' data and stores it in the DB 79 forpersistence.

6. URL Metadata Server: This service can accept a request containing aURL or a set of URLs and return data about that URL or set of URLs. Thekinds of data that can be returned include folder suggestions andassociated feeds . Incoming query requests come from the UI server inthe form of XML over HTTP.

7. Database: The database stores the users' favorites and associatedinformation. The data is accessed by the Cache Complex.

8. RSS: This represents HTTP servers that can provide RSS and Atomfeeds. These feeds might be offered by a service such as AOL or by otherfeed providers.

Although the invention is described herein with reference to thepreferred embodiment, one skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat other applications may be substituted for those set forth hereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.Accordingly, the invention should only be limited by the Claims includedbelow.

1. A computer implemented method for saving links to Web pages,comprising the steps of: presenting a Web page to a user; in response todetection of a user action while the Web page is presented, obtainingmetadata relating to the Web page; and storing a link to the Web page ina location within a user-traversable hierarchy, wherein the location isdetermined based upon the metadata.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising the steps of: a URL and/or other relevant information of apage being presented being referenced by a metadata server to ahierarchical classification scheme; and returning a folder categorysuggestion to the user that identifies a most likely category forstoring said link; wherein the user may select the suggested category,or the user may save the link in any other category, or create a newcategory.
 3. A computer implemented method for associating a feed with aWeb page, comprising the steps of: presenting a Web page to a user; inresponse to detection of a user action while the Web page is presented,obtaining metadata relating to the Web page identifying said Web page asfeed enabled; storing a link to the Web page in a location within auser-traversable list; displaying in-line with said link in said list atleast a portion of feed linked content.
 4. The method of claim 3,further comprising the step of: if a feed is associated with a Web page,showing an icon relative to said Web page link.
 5. The method of claim4, further comprising the step of: said user selecting said icon toretrieve most recent content associated with said link.
 6. The method ofclaim 3, further comprising the step of: automatically checking for feedupdates at set intervals.
 7. The method of claim 3, further comprisingthe step of: truncating feed content and presenting only a portionthereof to said user in-line with said link.
 8. The method of claim 3,further comprising the step of: providing an icon showing that a linkthat has a feed has a default state and an updated state.
 9. The methodof claim 3, further comprising the step of: when a list of links isdisplayed, each page in said list that has an associated feed displayinga subset of all content for said page, said subset comprising apredetermined number of most recent content.
 10. The method of claim 3,wherein any of actual number of articles, amount of text displayed, andupdate frequency can be set by a user.
 11. A computer implemented methodfor saving a link to a Web page, comprising the steps of: identifyingwhen a user is adding a favorite to a favorites list; and automaticallysuggesting a category under which the favorite could be stored.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising the steps of: a URL and/or otherrelevant information of a favorite being added being referenced by ametadata server to a hierarchical classification scheme; returning afolder suggestion to the user that identifies a most likely category forsaving said favorite; wherein the user may select the suggestedcategory, or the user may save the favorite in any other category, orcreate a new category.
 13. A computer implemented method for associatinga feed with a Web page, comprising the steps of: presenting a favoriteslist to a user; and providing a summary of feed content on each feedenabled page in-line on said favorites list, without requiring said userto link to a page in question.
 14. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising the step of: automatically checking for feed updates at setintervals.
 15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of:each page in said list that has an associated feed including a subset ofall feed content for said page, said subset comprising a predeterminednumber of most recent content.
 16. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising the step of: truncating said feed content and presenting onlya portion thereof to said user.
 17. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising the step of: providing an icon showing that a favorite thathas a feed has a default state and an updated state.
 18. The method ofclaim 13, wherein any of actual number of articles, amount of textprovided, and update frequency can be set by a user.
 19. A computerimplemented method for presenting metadata to a user during a Webbrowsing session, comprising the steps of: a user bookmarking a Web pageof interest for later retrieval when said user is engaged in a Webbrowsing session; sending an identifier of said bookmark to a metadataserver; said metadata server performing a lookup of said identifier forcategory information and/or for feed information; said metadata servermaking an association between said identifier and said categoryinformation and/or feed information; said metadata server returning saidcategory information and/or feed information to said user; if categoryinformation is returned to said user, providing said user with an optionto store said bookmark in a category represented by said categoryinformation, and storing said bookmark accordingly if said userexercises said option; and if said feed information is returned to saiduser, displaying at least a portion of said feed information in-line ina favorites list with said bookmark.
 20. The method of claim 19, furthercomprising the step of: if a feed is associated with a bookmarked page,showing an icon relative to said bookmark.
 21. The method of claim 20,further comprising the step of: said user selecting said icon toretrieve all of said feed information associated with said bookmark. 22.The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of: automaticallychecking for feed updates at set intervals.
 23. The method of claim 19,further comprising the step of: when said user selects a list ofbookmarks, each page in said list that has an associated feed includinga subset of all feed information for said page, said subset comprising apredetermined number of most recent information.
 24. The method of claim19, wherein any of actual number of articles, amount of informationpresented, and update frequency can be set by a user.
 25. The method ofclaim 19, further comprising the step of: truncating said RSSinformation and displaying only a portion thereof to said user.
 26. Themethod of claim 19, further comprising the steps of: a URL and/or otherrelevant information of a page being bookmarked being referenced by ametadata server to a hierarchical classification scheme; returning afolder suggestion to the user that identifies a most likely category forsaving said bookmark; wherein the user may select the suggestedcategory, or the user may save the bookmark in any other category, orcreate a new category.
 27. The method of claim 19, further comprisingthe step of: providing an icon showing that a favorite that has an RSSfeed has either of a default state and an updated state.